Spying and Impromptu Missions
by watermelloncat
Summary: I thought it would be cool if the spin the bottle scene during El and Max's sleepover went a little differently. How will they handle finding out Steve Harrington is under the weather? Set in season 3 but contains no spoilers. I'll probably continue this a little more in the future. Comment your suggestions on where I should take this.


"Ooh, we should put Mr Clarke on there!" Max exclaims as she writes the name on the yellow paper, holding the pen so tightly in excitement that her knuckles are white. "Who else should we put?" she asks Eleven as she places the paper on the edge of the board, one space still left spare.

"Dustin" El says and watches Max write him down.

"This is gonna be _so_ cool!" Max sits back, fidgeting with her hands. "You can have first spin if you want."

El smiles and accepts the offer, she likes her new friend. The surface of the bottle is cold when she twists it between her fingers and she becomes mesmerised by the flecks of light spinning from its reflection after she lets it spin.

Max shuffles closer to her as the bottle slows down. "Mr Wheeler?!" Max makes a sound of disgust. _Why did they even put him on there?_ "Spin again."

El laughs and re-spins the bottle, watching as the light dances around her room again.

As the bottle slows down it becomes dangerously close to stopping on Mr Wheeler again and they both shift in anticipation, hopping that it will move on.

"Steve" El reads after the bottle neck spins past Nancy's name and onto his.

"He'll probably be doing his hair" Max chuckles as she jumps off El's bed.

_This is the coolest sleepover she's ever been too, _Max thinks while her and El sit on the floor, El tying the blindfold around her head.

"You ready" Max asks when El drops her hands.

She nods.

When Max hits play, the sound of radio static fills the room and El's mind fades into black.

The water in the void splashes under her feet as El makes her way towards an unfocused shape in the distance.

"Can you see him?" Max's voice echoes around her.

As she keeps walking the shape comes into focus. Unlike anyone else she's ever found; this one doesn't seem to be moving. Instead Steve appears to be lying down with his eyes shut. He looks peaceful enough but El can't shake the feeling that something's wrong.

"He's sleeping… I think" El guesses from the slow rise and fall of his chest.

"Oh, that's boring" Max says. "We should try someone else."

Max's words are lost on her as El studies Steve's weakened form. "He's lying on a couch" she recites but stops speaking immediately when she sees Steve move; bringing a blanket covered hand up to cover his mouth as his chest convulses in an uneven rhythm.

"He's choking" she observes, too distracted by the scene to put any emotion into her words.

"What, choking?!" Back in El's room Max leans forward. Wanting to shake El when she doesn't reply but she thinks better of disturbing her. "Choking on what?"

"Don't know…nothing."

Max bites her lip as her mind ticks away. "El… what does he look like?"

"Boy, brown hair" El begins to list.

"No, no. I mean does he look different?"

"Different" El echoes, her mind processing as she creeps closer to Steve in the void. She kneels down in front of him, her knees splashing gently into the water. With him now at her eyelevel she sees grey lines under his eyes in clear contrast to the rest of his skin. "He's white… pale?" She tries out her new vocabulary.

"Okay" Max sighs, settling down a little and leaning back on the base of El's bed.

"Okay? He doesn't look… okay" El speaks unsurely as she continues to survey the boy in front of her.

"No, but I think I know what's wrong" Max amends.

El notices all sounds of panic have been erased from her voice, so she reaches up to take the blind fold off.

"No, no!" Max reaches her hand out in protest, not that El can see it. "I need you to do something else first."

El nods and drops her hands.

"Do you know if there's any other people in the house?" Max asks.

El can't sense anyone else and shakes her head.

"Alright" Max says before turning off the radio static.

Taking the blind fold off, El's eyes are flooded with light and her eyelids blink shut in protest. When they adjust, she sees Max handing her a tissue to clean the blood from her face.

After the tissue is thrown away, El turns back to Max with a worried expression.

"It's okay" Max reassures, pursing her lips in a small smile "he's probably just sick."

"Sick?"

"You know when you don't feel well?"

El shakes her head.

"You've never been sick before?" Max's eyes widen.

El only shrugs.

"Lucky!" Max whines before continuing, "anyway, it's never really a big deal."

"But he's not… well?" El responds.

"Yeah, but he'll get better" Max assures her.

"How?"

Max fixes El with a look, a cheeky smile spreading across her face.

The knock at the door didn't concern Steve much. It's not like it woke him up or anything, he hadn't been able to get back to sleep for over half an hour. How it did concern him was that it sounded in the dead of night, and that was never a good thing.

His stiff muscles shake as he pushes himself off the couch, kicking away the blanket he'd dragged down from his bed around lunchtime. Rubbing at his eyes, he wonders who could possibly be at his house this late at night; his parents weren't supposed to be home for another couple of days.

As he makes his way to the door, he hopes it isn't Dustin. As much as he loves the kid, he's really not up for any impromptu missions at the moment.

By all means he's shocked when he opens the door revealing two brightly dressed girls standing in front of him.

"Max? _El_? You" - his panic catches in his throat and he brings his arm to his mouth, continuing to speak through coughs rumbling in his chest, "you shouldn't be here."

"And by the sound of it you shouldn't be talking" Max raises her eyebrows at him.

"Get inside" Steve hurries them in using a hand to guide them through the doorway, knowing well that El can't be seen out-and-about even in the small hours.

"Hopper's going to kill me if he finds out you're here" Steve proclaims shutting the door behind them.

"Well you already look like you're dying" Max observes.

"Did you come here just to insult me?" Steve turns around after locking the door, doing his best to muster up some kind of warning look.

"Long story" El says.

Steve opens his mouth for more of an explanation but Max cuts him off, "and we don't want to explain." She figures that Steve wouldn't be too cool with the idea of them spying on him, even if good intentions came out of it. "Where's your bathroom?"

"You did _not_ come all this way to use my bathroom" he shakes his head in confusion. "What's this about?"

"We're looking after you, Harrington" Max gives in with a roll of her eyes.

Steve's silent for a while, frozen in place and blinking slowly. Finally, something ticks over in his mind and he realises he's just not going to question it. "Down past the kitchen to the left."

As he watches Max take El's hand and lead her in the foretold direction, he realises what an odd group of kids he's gotten himself involved with. Although he himself might not be up for an impromptu mission, it seems like for El and Max, things were different.


End file.
